Nearly 2,000 bodies have been recovered since the disaster on September 28, but authorities believe another 5,000 may be entombed beneath the ruins.

The search will end Thursday, officials say, when the worst-hit places will be sealed off, becoming mass graves containing unknown numbers of dead.

Memorials will be erected at Balaroa, Petobo and Jono Oge outside Palu where liquefaction — a phenomenon where the brute force of a quake turns soil to quicksand — engulfed entire villages.

“We will build a monument, and in the future we will create green spaces there,” Haris Kariming, a spokesman for the provincial government, told reporters in Palu.

The deadline gives family still searching for the missing just days to try to find their loved ones, and say goodbye.

– Proper burial –

In Balaroa, the news was too much to bear for Halimah Ariav Kobo, whose 25-year-old daughter Ummu Kalsum vanished in the disaster.

Squatting by debris where her daughter once lived, Kobo and her husband point to a filthy pool of black water and shattered concrete where they believe Ummu lies.

Rescuers had searched the area three times, she said, but found no trace of their daughter or her husband, who only married two months earlier.

“If they flatten this place to become a cemetery, what about all the bodies that have not been taken out?” Kobo told AFP.

“I hope my child is found, in whatever condition. I want to take her home and bury her in a proper way. As a mother, I will not leave this place until the search is finished.”

Hopes of finding anyone alive have all but vanished.

But with days until the search is called off, family are more desperate than ever.

“Even if they stop looking, we will still try to find them ourselves,” said Gopal as he picked through rubble looking for his aunt and uncle in Balaroa.

“When we can no longer do it ourselves, we leave it to Allah,” said the 40-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

– Thousands missing –

Rescuers called off the search Monday at Hotel Roa-Roa, which was reduced to a tangled mess by the force of the quake.

It emerged as an early focus of efforts to extract survivors after seven people were pulled out alive.

That optimism came to nothing, with efforts yielding only 27 bodies.

“The SAR operation at Hotel Roa-Roa has ended, because we have searched the entire hotel and have not found any more victims,” Bambang Suryo, search and rescue field director in Palu, told AFP.

Authorities believed the 80-room hotel was near capacity when the district was ravaged by a 7.5 magnitude quake and tsunami and estimated 50 to 60 people could be trapped inside.

Rescuers have struggled to find remains in the wreckage, a job made worse as mud hardens and bodies decompose in the tropical heat.

A total 1,948 dead had been found as of Monday, said Willem Rampangilei, head of Indonesia’s disaster agency.

Most had been returned to their families, but at least 815 had been buried in pits to avoid the spread of disease, he added.

Balaroa resident Sarjono agreed with sealing the area for good.

“But only if they help us relocate elsewhere. If they don’t, where will we live?” the 50-year-old told AFP near the debris of his former home.

Excavators and rescuers combed Balaroa on Monday, where a massive government housing complex was swallowed up by the disaster.

Petobo, a cluster of villages, was also subsumed when vibrations from the 7.5-magnitude quake caused the earth to churn and rise up.

Officials say as many as 5,000 people are feared buried at Balaroa and Petobo alone, but stressed it was almost impossible to know the exact number.

– Desperate need –

Relief efforts have escalated to assist 200,000 people in desperate need. Food and clean water remain in short supply, and many are dependent entirely on handouts to survive.

Helicopters have been running supply drops to more isolated communities outside Palu, where the full extent of the damage is still not entirely clear.

Around 74,000 people have been displaced by the quake.

More than 10,000 have been injured, a quarter of them seriously, disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Monday.

The Red Cross said Monday it had treated more than 1,800 people at clinics and administered first aid to a similar number in the immediate disaster zone.

Indonesia sits in the world’s most tectonically active region, and its 260 million people are vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

The letter has served as a supporting document for obtaining a Thai retirement or marriage visa.

The embassy is stopping the certification of income letters because it is unable to fulfil the Thai authorities’ requirements to verify the income of UK nationals, it said in a release on Monday.

For a retirement visa, British nationals have to demonstrate that they have at least Bt800,000 in an account in Thailand for no less than three months prior to the visa application, or a monthly income of at least Bt65,000 transferred into an account in Thailand.

For a marriage visa, the amounts are Bt400,000 in an account in Thailand for no less than three months prior to the visa application, or a monthly income of at least Bt40,000 transferred into an account in Thailand.

A bank statement should in future be used as the supporting document for obtaining a Thai retirement or marriage visa, the embassy said.

All British nationals concerned should note that the last date for income-letter applications is December 12, it added.

Victor Mallet, the FT’s Asia news editor and a British national, angered authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong by hosting a speech at the city’s press club by Andy Chan, the leader of a tiny pro-independence political party.

Chan’s party has since been banned as Beijing cracks down on any pro-independence sentiment in the semi-autonomous city.

Last week it emerged Mallet’s application for a renewal of his work visa had been rejected by Hong Kong immigration authorities.

On Monday the FT said Mallet had only been granted a seven-day visitor visa after returning to the city from a trip on Sunday.

Sources with direct knowledge of the situation told AFP that Mallet was questioned at immigration and was refused automatic entry.

British citizens are usually allowed into Hong Kong without a visa and are permitted to stay for 180 days under immigration rules.

The FT said immigration officials had provided no explanation for the shortened visitor visa.

“We continue to seek clarification from the Hong Kong authorities about the rejection of his work visa renewal,” said the paper, which has its regional headquarters in Hong Kong.

The FT’s editorial board had earlier described the decision to refuse Mallet a work visa as sending a “chilling message to everyone in Hong Kong”.

– Lawyers hit back –

In a strident speech in August at the city’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC), where Mallet serves as vice president, independence activist Chan attacked China as an empire trying to “annex” and “destroy” Hong Kong.

China’s foreign ministry had asked the club to pull the talk, but the FCC refused, arguing that all sides of a debate should be heard and that it hosted a variety of speakers, including Chinese officials.

Britain and the United States have expressed concern over the visa refusal and its impact on press freedom.

On Monday, a group of the city’s most influential lawyers also hit back.

“Such rejection calls for an explanation in light of its unprecedented nature and its profound impact on Hong Kong’s press freedom,” 30 lawyers said in a statement.

The group makes up the legal subsector of the electoral committee that chooses the city’s leader.

Another legal organisation, the Progressive Lawyers Group, said: “Any forced retreat of foreign media outlets would be a tragic loss for Hong Kong and must be vigilantly guarded against”.

A journalists’ alliance handed over petitions with more than 15,000 signatures to the government Monday calling for an explanation of its visa rejection.

Hong Kong authorities have said they cannot comment on Mallet’s case.

China’s foreign ministry has said it supports Hong Kong “in handling the related matters in accordance with law”, and warned other countries not to interfere.

MBSA MPP Zone 9 councillor Yugarajah Palanisamy said he was setting up a Used Oil Collection corner at his office in Taman Sri Muda.

He said residents could drop off used oil together with their names and handphone numbers for the council to pay them later.

“They do not need to wait for us to be there, they can drop off the used oil, and we will call them up for the payment of RM1 per kg,” he said.

Taman Sri Muda has a notoriety for dirty back alleys and rodent infestation that MBSA has been trying to battle.

The council spent over RM512,000 in the past three years to clean the drains to prevent blockage.

Yugarajah said it was time to educate the public on the dangers of pouring used cooking oil into the sinks as that would eventually clog up drains.

“This has become a culture for Malaysians. I think this habit can be traced back to our grandmothers and mothers. Nobody taught them the right disposal methods, but now we are trying to do it,” he said.

He said he hoped that the incentive given to traders and residents for selling used oil would encourage them to stop reusing cooking oil, which would affect food safety. He added that used cooking oil collected could be turned into biodiesel, or to make soaps and candles. Yugarajah said this during the Jom Sihat – Berjalan Bersama Komuniti dan Kitar Semula 2018 event.

The event saw some 150 participants coming together to walk 1km around Taman Sri Muda’s commercial area and collected rubbish along the route.

Kota Kemuning assemblyman V. Ganabatirau Veraman and Taman Sri Muda police station chief ASP Nor Zamri Shamsuri attended the event.

Ganabatirau applauded the residents for cleaning up the area, adding that the event should be held on a regular basis.

Zamri said the event was a great way to educate residents on the importance of cleanliness.

Participants collected 227kg of rubbish during the event that started at 7.30am.

Those who collected the most amount of rubbish received prizes while some brought home attractive lucky draw prizes.

China had been tight-lipped about the fate of Meng Hongwei, who is also vice minister for public security, since French officials disclosed on Friday that he had been reported missing after leaving France for China last month.

His case could tarnish Beijing’s efforts to gain leadership posts in international organisations, but it is also a black eye for France-based Interpol, which is tasked with finding missing people, analysts say.

His wife, Grace, told reporters in Lyon, where Interpol is headquartered, that she was concerned after receiving a text message from her husband with a knife emoji.

China’s National Supervisory Commission, which handles corruption cases involving public servants, broke the official silence early Monday, saying in a one-line statement that Meng “is currently under investigation on suspicion of violating the law”.

Soon after, Interpol said it had received Meng’s resignation “with immediate effect”.

It is the latest high-profile disappearance in China, where a number of top government officials, billionaire business magnates and even an A-list celebrity have vanished for weeks or months at a time.

When — or if — they reappear, it is often in court.

Meng, the first Chinese president of Interpol, was last heard from on September 25 as he left Lyon.

Interpol’s secretary general Juergen Stock, who oversees day-to-day operations, said Saturday the agency was seeking “clarification” on his whereabouts.

Meng was appointed in 2016, despite concerns from human rights groups, giving Chinese President Xi Jinping a win in his bid to paint the communist-led country as a responsible player in global affairs.

But his disappearance could be a setback for China.

“Any international organisation should think twice going forward before considering a Chinese candidate to be its head,” Bonnie Glaser, senior Asia adviser at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP.

– Danger emoji –

Meng had lived with his wife and two children in France since 2016.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Meng’s wife Grace said she had received a message from his phone containing a knife emoji before his disappearance.

That day, she said he sent a message telling her to “wait for my call”, before sending the emoji signifying danger.

“This matter belongs to the international community,” she told a press conference with her back turned to the cameras out of fear for her safety.

“I’m not sure what has happened to him,” she said.

China’s recently established National Supervisory Commission holds sweeping powers to investigate public servants, with few requirements for transparency.

Although the commission did not detail the allegations against Meng, its mandate is to probe corruption cases as part of Xi’s anti-graft campaign.

Some critics of the effort — which has punished more than one million officials — say it also functions as a tool for Xi to eliminate his political rivals.

– Red notices –

Meng rose through the ranks of the country’s domestic security apparatus when it was under the leadership of Zhou Yongkang, a rival to Xi and the highest-ranking official to be brought down on corruption charges.

Zhou — who was jailed for life in 2014 — was subsequently accused of conspiring to seize state power.

He appointed Meng vice security minister in 2004.

In that role, Meng has been entrusted with a number of sensitive portfolios, including the country’s counter-terrorism division, and was in charge of the response to several major incidents in China’s fractious western region of Xinjiang.

Critics of Meng’s rise to Interpol’s presidency said he would use the position to help China target dissidents abroad.

Interpol has downplayed the concerns, saying the president has little influence over the organisation’s day-to-day operations.

The Chinese effort to track down corrupt officials abroad, known as Operation Fox Hunt, has led to claims in some countries that Chinese law-enforcement agents have been operating covertly on their soil without authorisation.

China currently has 44 outstanding red notices, mostly related to murder, intentional injury and drug smuggling, according to Interpol’s website.

During Meng’s tenure, Interpol issued a red notice for fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who threatened to reveal corruption at the country’s highest levels and is himself accused by Chinese authorities of money laundering.